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What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

I believe that a cartridge and a speaker, by far, contribute the most to SQ.

The two transducers in a system.

I bit the bulllet and bought a Lyra Atlas SL for $13K for my Woodsong Garrard 301 with Triplanar SE arm. I use a full function Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamp. My $60K front end. It is certainly, by far, the best I have owned. I read so many comments exclaiming that Lyra as among the best. I had to wait 6 months to get it. But the improvement over my excellent $3K Mayijima Shilabi was spectacular-putting it mildly.

I recently heard a demo of much more pricy system using a $25K cartridge. Seemed to be the most expensive cartridge made. Don’t recall the name.

For sure, the amount of detail was something I never heard. To hear a timpani sound like the real thing was incredible. And so much more! 
This got me thinking of what could be possible with a different kind of cartridge than a moving coil. That is, a moving iron.

I have heard so much about the late Decca London Reference. A MI and a very different take from a MC. Could it be better? The World’s Best? No longer made.

However Grado has been making MI cartridges for decades. Even though they hold the patent for the MC. Recently, Grado came out with their assault on “The World’s Best”. At least their best effort. At $12K the Epoch 3. I bought one and have been using it now for about two weeks replacing my Lyra. There is no question that the Atlas SL is a fabulous cartridge. But the Epoch is even better. Overall, it’s SQ is the closest to real I have heard. To begin, putting the stylus down on the run in grove there is dead silence. As well as the groves between cuts. This silence is indicative of the purity of the music content. Everything I have read about it is true. IME, the comment of one reviewer, “The World’s Best”, may be true.
 

 

mglik
dover
2,271 posts
 

They both use the same SH-uX core which is Matsudaira's trademark. 

The core materias  used in various cartridges go under the radar - no one talks about them. I have a hunch from listening to many cartridges from the same manufacturer ( alnico, samarium cobalt, platinum etc ) with different core materials that we are listening to the core material as much as the cantilever/stylus/generator design.

I cant stand the platinum magnet Koetsu's. Don't know why - technically, but I've heard enough koetsu's of all types from the 80's onward black - rosewood - onyx golds to know there is a plasticky quality that pervades the platinum magnet Koetsu's compared to Suganos earlier cartridges. It has nothing to do with rolled off top end or lush midrange - there is a synthetic quality from mid to upper mid that grates - I'm thinking may be the magnets.

The only other platinum magnet cartridge I've heard is the VDH Colibri - and to me that sounds slightly coarse compared to his others, but not as bad as the Koetsu's.

 

daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,957 posts
 

Lol, this thread has me immensely amused. The WBF is such a joke these days that IMO anyone contributing over there is really contributing to the great YAWN. @rauliruegas  take it as a badge of honor that you are banned there, I certainly do.

@mikelavigne  you well know that the remaining members at WBF are all buddies of Steve or worse, Ron. They all follow the same guru and believe the same old BS that the guru pushes. Horns rule, and gear that is non-resolving and as bright as the sun is looked up to, probably because these folks have lost their high frequency hearing years ago!
 

The best cartridge is simple, one that meets your listening biases and your pocketbook, that works on your tonearm in a synergistic manner…and plays well with your phono stage.

rsf507
2,355 posts
 

Well said @daveyf +1

dover
2,271 posts
 

The best cartridge is simple, one that meets your listening biases and your pocketbook, that works on your tonearm in a synergistic manner…and plays well with your phono stage.

Yep - thats what I posted back in August.

Agree - synergy rules ( and I don't mean the SPU )

Heard so much top end stuff sounding awful due in main to mismatching and poor set up.

edgewear
543 posts
 

@dover as you know I greatly appreciate your expert opinion, but this needs to be corrected. As far as I know VdHul never used platinum magnets. However, he did use platinums coil wire for the Colibri. To the best of my knowledge he’s been the only cartridge designer who ever used this metal for coil wires. It seems particularly difficult to work with and when his supply of sufficient quality wire ran out, it was over. I have one of the last samples of the Colibri XPW African Blackwood, which I treasure. The word ‘coarse’ is about the last I would think of when describing the sound of this cartridge.

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